In common domestic appliances today where an item is to be treated for a defined period of time, e.g., cooking food in an oven, a timer is provided as part of the user interface. This allows the user to set the timer and focus on other tasks while the item is treated in the appliance without having to actively track the time of treatment. The timer will perform a function at its expiration. Commonly, the function initiated by expiration of the timer is alerting the user that the treatment time has expired and/or turning off a treatment element of the appliance.
However, domestic appliances with a timer function also require that the user indicate prior to setting the duration of the timer which function is to be performed upon expiration of the timer. Often in the situation where a food item is cooked in an oven, the predetermined duration of cooking may last an extended period of time. The user may have other tasks to perform and may not be able to predict whether he or she will be available upon expiration of the timer to remove the cooked food item to halt its treatment or if he or she will be away such that the oven needs to turn itself off to prevent extended treatment that is not desired, e.g., overcooking.
In other words, the user may know all of the relevant treatment parameters before initiating treatment by the domestic appliance and therefore the user may program the appliance with these parameters in advance of treatment. There may, however, be a temporal separation between when the user programs the parameters of the appliance and when the user would like to begin treatment. In the case of the oven, a period of time may be also required to allow the oven to preheat to its desired treatment temperature. The user's circumstances may change during this time such that the user may not desire for the domestic appliance to perform the function already programmed after the expiration of the timer.
Thus, presently known domestic appliance timers may present a difficulty to the user in that he or she may not be able to have the domestic appliance timer perform the desired function upon expiration of the timer.